By Ray Cox, Program Director, WestCare Georgia Guidance Center
Living in the deep south comes with some simple pleasures. On a hot summer day, a tall glass of sweet tea and a fresh home-grown tomato sandwich is a southern delicacy. Recently, our residents have learned some new skills that will help them in the years to come.
The residents of the WestCare Georgia Guidance Center have learned how to build raised garden boxes from donated materials provided by a local sawmill, Jordan Lumber & Supply.
The residents were taught and directed by Wyolene Dumas, an amazing RN of ours as well as an avid gardener regarding what to plant, how to plant, and how to nurture the garden boxes. The program staff (Darrell McMullen, Greg Mitchell, Becky Patterson, Christina New, and Cliff VanSykle) participated in the building of the boxes as well as filling the boxes with topsoil. Once the boxes were prepared, the residents started the planting process. Some plants were mere seeds while others were young plants. The residents planted tomatoes, okra, beans, squash, watermelon, purple hull peas, jalapeno peppers, and cucumbers. The plants were planted after the last frost in April. The residents learned how to compost, to nurture the plants, and have been reaping the benefits of their hard work. They have learned about the concept of a hundredfold return. The images that we’ve included show the abundance of their labor.
